A new low: Amazon bribing people not to use shops

We’ve written in the past why Amazon is bad news: it exploits its workers, it union-busts, rips-off publishers and authors (some of whom make no money at all from Amazon sales), and it is clear has every intention to monopolise the market (not just in books). To read all about that, click here.

All of which is bad enough, but Amazon is hitting new lows with it’s latest ‘promotion’. It is encouraging shoppers with smart phones to go into bookshops and use a special Amazon app to scan a book, then walk out of the shop and buy it from their site – the reward for doing so is $5 for each book you don’t buy, up to a maximum of $15.

On the one hand they are trying to turn bookshops into free showrooms for Amazon products, and on the other they are trying to drive real shops out of existence – all very reminiscent of the aggressive monopolisation policies of Wal-Mart.

Deeply distressing promotion indeed, though it’s probably slightly missing the point. As indy boookstores have soldiered on and specialised to cope with Amazonisation, and it has regetably put the nail in the coffin for some book retails, it is surely eBooks that will prove fatal for indies. unless they can diversify too…